Derny Driver wrote:People with kids who ride, or wives who ride, should spend a grand and get a second hand scooter. You get to spend a couple of hours of quality time together, chatting, and you are keeping that person 100% safe. Riding alone is dodgy even for adults.

Hey Derny Driver, are you really suggesting that adult female cyclists need to be supervised or protected on the road? I suppose you think we shouldn't be in the workforce either, or perhaps we are not fit to drive alone as well?

That is a ridiculously outdated and offensive attitude based purely on gender.

Well, excuse me if I refuse to subscribe to it, cos this female cyclist - who also happens to be a wife AND a CEO - is just as safe and capable as any other equally experienced male cyclist and driver on the road.

Do you also get angry if a man holds the door for you or is that an appropriate perk for CEO's regardless of gender?

I find it pretty sad when a person is seen to be sexist simply because that person wishes to protect those whom he/she loves. Not all women shun being so cared for. A few might even feel lucky to have someone that loves them enough to put their own needs after their beloved's. Germain Greer said on Q&A how awful it is that 'emancipated' corporate women judge success for themselves and other women on how much like men they are. There was a time when some thought that women being in positions of power would lead to a more sane world.

I also am perplexed at the notion (not yours, but generally) that very young children should be out on busy highways because we did it in 1953 while smiling FJ drivers' slowly drove by waving hello. If anyone has noticed, there are a zillion more cars and trucks on our antiquated roads with half the drivers either texting or chatting endlessly.

Not riding related, but it's a reminder for us all to take extra care around schools.

Riding on the road is quite appropriate in back streets with supervision for younger kids. I think Derny Driver has the right idea with regards to that, and even following his teenage son along. Some might call it helicopter parenting, but I think it's just common sense.

Screw please, the bloke with the magic helmet is telling not asking. One more bit of off topicness and I get the chainsaw out and go nuts.All participants are as of now put on notice that if they play the man rather than the ball then I will too. Who wants a holiday?

Shaun

...whatever the road rules, self-preservation is the absolute priority for a cyclist when mixing it with motorised traffic.London Boy 29/12/2011

Basically this comes down to the way traffic behaves on the road in question. The more 'calm' the traffic the more safety is present for a child (on a bike or not).

Read some stuff on 'traffic calming' and you'll be tempted to paint a cricket pitch on the road center.. and then get residents playing on it! You'll find people will slow .. some will even join in. Things like not having formed gutters so the road edges merge with the grass .. slow traffic .. Why bother with speed humps/chicanes etc... make them into local playing fields and people will recognize that the area is for people not cars, so cars must take them into account, not the other way around.

================Mulger bill .. we have a few Hells around here much more appropriate to OZ .. Hells Gate (there is at least two of them, I've been to both .. oh and the cold one too - stamp in passport to prove it). 127 of them .. some are repeats so a less than 127 humm some are Hellyer so take them out too .. on http://www.ga.gov.au/place-names/ Anyway this might get the post back on subject

Warin wrote:Basically this comes down to the way traffic behaves on the road in question. The more 'calm' the traffic the more safety is present for a child (on a bike or not).

Read some stuff on 'traffic calming' and you'll be tempted to paint a cricket pitch on the road center.. and then get residents playing on it! You'll find people will slow .. some will even join in. Things like not having formed gutters so the road edges merge with the grass .. slow traffic .. Why bother with speed humps/chicanes etc... make them into local playing fields and people will recognize that the area is for people not cars, so cars must take them into account, not the other way around.

Mulger bill wrote:It's not the road that's dangerous, it's the mouth breathing arseclowns with a hypertrophied ego and overdeveloped sense of entitlement that are.I refused to bubblewrap my kids, from go they were learning from me almost as much as they taught me. Started out with basic behaviour near and on roads as a ped and went from there.

&

Mulger bill wrote:Teach 'em youmg, teach 'em well.

And there's the rub. So, so many folk seem to leave the educating to others.

If you're like MB and taught your offspring the necessary skills to be as safe as can reasonably be expected out in the big, wide world, then chances are they will be as safe as anybody else using roads once you deem it time to let them loose (bearing in mind that younger children tend to see the world differently and allowances need to be made...eg. they take a lot longer than dolphins to figure out trajectories).

If however a child's education in this regard has been neglected, then turning them loose on or near a road when they are as old as 16 or 17 can be problematic. Even at that age a child who has been mollycoddled by being driven to every single appointment and/or never let out of your sight and/or made almost as paranoid as you are that everyone and everything is out to get them will in all likelihood not have sufficient skills to stay safe on a road, or in many other situations.

There are many things you can leave to others to teach your kids. IMHO this is not one of them. (Sure, a partner or family member who cares about them at least as much as you do would suffice, I guess, particularly if they have better road sense than yourself )

[Disclaimer: I am not an owner of a child, nor have I ever felt the need to have one. I do however know plenty of folk who do (including the young adult referred to above) which I think gives me a fairly balanced view...unaffected by vested interests 'n all.

Please, please note the " "

On a lighter note: On my return trip through Hope Island last weekend I passed a couple of kids that wouldn't have been over 10, kitted out in all the gear, being shepherded by 3 adults. They were riding in the shoulder of an 80kph road and wouldn't have been in any more danger than I was doing the same. What a wonderful sight. It made me smile all the way home.

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